In the News: Michael Barkun

"Such subject-specific areas as crank science, conspiracist politics, and occultism are not isolated from one another," but rather they are interconnected, according to Michael Barkun,  professor emeritus of political science. "The consequence of such mingling is that an individual who enters the communications system pursuing one interest soon becomes aware of stigmatized material on a broad range of subjects."

Michael Barkun comments on the persistence of conspiracy theories, stating "they never die, they have remarkable resilience" in the Washington Jewish Week article "Where do these conspiracy theories come from?" 

"The Rothschilds, who combined Jewishness, banking and international ties, presented an attractive target” for conspiracy theorists, says Michael Barkun, professor emeritus of political science.

Michael Barkun, professor emeritus of political science, established three core beliefs that allow conspiracy theories to thrive: nothing happens by accident, nothing is as it seems, and dots can always be connected. This framework was used by the author to explain persisting conspiracy theories about Princess Diana.

In his book, "A Culture of Conspiracy," Professor Emeritus of Political Science Michael Barkun writes "such subject-specific areas as crank science, conspiracist politics, and occultism are not isolated from one another," but rather "they are interconnected."

"The role of the alt-right in the 2016 campaign, alongside the broader movement of fringe motifs into the mainstream, suggests a political future that once seemed inconceivable: the potential public re-emergence of a white supremacist organization, something not seen in America since the Ku Klux Klan of the 1920s," says Michael Barkun, professor emeritus of political science.

"One of the most significant things that's happened since the presidential campaign began is the spread of conspiracy theories, largely through Donald Trump and his representatives. In a sense, that's both a product of trends that were out there before the campaign began, but it was also a significant innovation," says Michael Barkun, professor emeritus of political science.

Michael Barkun, professor emeritus of political science, says that conspiracy theories are "constructed in such a way that there isn’t any evidence you can present to someone who believes them that will lead a believer to change his or her mind."